When I approached him for an interview about the series and his work, Mr. Ball said yes quickly and graciously. Rather than ask him questions that have no doubt been covered in other venues, I decided to allow the fans a rare chance to ask Mr. Ball questions about his work on True Blood and just about anything else Sookie-related that they desired. The response was overwhelming, and I selected the best questions to pass along to him. I’m pleased to reveal his answers here.

How did you first discover the Sookie Stackhouse series?

—RACHEL KLIKA

I was early for a dentist appointment and stumbled upon the books at a nearby Barnes & Noble. I picked up the first book and couldn’t put it down. Once I got into the series, I knew it had to be a TV show.

In Season 2 of True Blood, the maenad character Maryann Forrester (played brilliantly by Michelle Forbes) was developed to a fuller extent when compared to her role in the book by Ms. Harris. Why did you decide to develop this character further?

—DEIRDRE BRENNAN

Part of the challenge in adapting Charlaine’s novels is to create strong stories for the characters other than Sookie and still remain very faithful to the spirit of the books. We loved the maenad attacking Sookie and poisoning her with her claws, and then we looked for ways for her to interact with the other characters as well as being dangerous to Sookie. Ultimately, she gave us something for the entire cast to go up against.

What was your motivation for having Bill ask Sookie to marry him in the end of the second season when it was so far from the books? Was it that it was a good way to have Bill kidnapped/disappear?

—ADDIE BROWN

I think the motivation was to give them a moment of happiness, a hope that something they thought was off-limits to both of them was actually within their grasp. They’ve been through so much together during their relatively short relationship, it felt nice to give them a moment of “normalcy” and the hope that they could have a happy ending. Of course, this being True Blood, there isn’t much chance of that.

What inspired you to make the Sookie books into an HBO series?

—KIM MCCOLLOM

I was so deeply entertained by the experience of reading the books, I just thought it would make a great TV show. The world and the characters seemed too large for just a movie—to me, it begged for the larger canvas of a TV series.

Your show has resonated with such a wide demographic group of people—many not typical fans of vampires and the paranormal. What [do you think] sets True Blood apart from all the other vampire movies/ shows to attract such a following?

—KIM MCCOLLOM